An Unhappily Ever After
by crazyforkpop
Summary: Tom was not the stereotypical "mean, stupid, mouse-catching" cat we imagined him to be. But what really motivated him to catch and chase Jerry all the time? Warning: Recommended for audiences 13 and over due to occasions of strong language, violence and intense moments. Not the cartoon-type fiction.
1. Chapter 1

"Tom, take that pesky mouse out of that bread box!"  
"Tom, look at my floor! Because of you I have to clean the floor all over again!"  
"Tom, look at my chocolate cake! Oh, my lovely dishes!"

Tom leaned back against the wall in fear, sweating dripping from his forehead, eyes widening in shock, dreading to the regular brutal punishment. Mammy Two-Shoes lifted up her broom once again whilst Tom cowered in her sight. She forced him, chest down across her lap roughly, and with forty or fifty smacks of the broom, Mammy continued to abuse the poor cat whilst Tom cried and yowled in pain, and Jerry jeered mockingly whilst watching the punishment.

"Now scram and get out of my sight! You're a cat, for goodness sake! Why can't you catch mice better like all other cats? God! I deserve way better!" Mammy Two Shoes screamed in anger as she stomped out off the messy kitchen. After stepping on a broken egg shell, she immediately went back to Tom, who was now lying in fetal position trying to endure the pain.

"Oh yes, and no milk nor salmon for you tonight."

Tom's eyes started to well up with tears, but he did not really care as much than when he reacted to the first punishment after Mammy Two Shoes brought him into her house. She said the same thing every time, and Tom got used to the abuse. As usual, Jerry would rejoice, run to the kitchen messy beyond repair, and pig out on all the foods. As Tom watched Jerry eat all the foods, including Tom's raw salmon on the table, a wave of nostalgia flooded over him. With tears in his eyes, Tom stared as he began to recollect memories of his life as a kitten, when he was living with his old family.

Before Mammy Two Shoes brought him into the new house, Tom used to be a very happy kitten, whilst living with his parents. In the place where Tom was living, there were very few mice, so there was no issues about eating and catching mice. The owners were rich, so they were able to give Tom's family a lot more food than just mice alone. His owners regularly gave Tom's family on special occasions a whole salmon, Tom's favourite fish, to each cat, so they would end the day with full happy tummies. The mesmerising smell, the sweet feeling of the salmon juice and the soft texture of the salmon always made Tom in a good mood for the whole day. Whenever Tom thought of salmon, he would try to regain memories of his childhood.

Sadly Tom's mother died of sickness, therefore Tom's father was left to raise Tom on his own, until he died by having been run over by a truck. As a little Tom reacted to his father's death, he meowed in sorrow, pouting and whining at the same time. Once the road was clear, he crawled from the sidewalk to the middle of the road, where his father was lying in fetal position, a nasty wound on his side with bones sticking and pus and blood oozing from it. Tom purred sadly as he licked his father's face and snuggled with the corpse for several hours. As Tom was sleeping, he did not know that a man from the animal shelter picked him up, placed him in a truck and drove him away to an animal shelter.

When Tom woke up, he noticed that he was lying inside a tiny but filthy cage. The space was so tight and uncomfortable that he could barely breathe nor turn around. The animal shelter did have food, but it was dirty and therefore gave Tom an upset stomach. Worst of all, the owners of the animal shelter regularly beaten and abused him like all the other cats and dogs. Tom had never felt so lost nor lonely in his life, having eperienced a shocking transition from a happy warm life to an unfriendly cold life.

After discussion and consultation with a middle aged woman, who was Mammy Two Shoes, she decided to raise Tom on her own, as she hoped that he would grow into a strong cat that would catch mice and make her house free of rodents. However, Tom was not the type of cat that would harm mice, in fact he liked to play with them. One day, whilst Mammy Two Shoes was sweeping the floor, a mouse named Jerry ran out and in shock, caught sight of Tom. But Tom only smiled and played with Jerry as if he was a ball of yarn. As Mammy turned around to look at Tom, she was surprised. I thought all cats disliked mice, she thought.

She immediately took the mouse away from Tom and threw Jerry out the window. Then she undressed Tom and took him upstairs to give him a bath.

"Tom, you don't play with mice. You catch them. Mice are very dirty!" she scolded Tom. Tom did not seem to understand, but Mammy let him off as he was only a small kitten.

However, as Tom became older and older, Mammy stopped pretending to like Tom, and in fact started disliking him. She thought that there was something wrong with Tom, and that he needed to grow out of playing with mice. So she trained Tom to be a mouse catcher, and forced him to spend his life as a mouse catcher in the house for the rest of his life. Tom sighed as he reluctantly chased Jerry, who was very strong for his size and always managed to find a way back into the house.


	2. Chapter 2

Back in the present day, Tom's eyes began to well up with tears as he remembered the regular abuse and humiliation he was forced to endure. Mammy Two Shoes abused and humiliated him long enough. Called him an "old cat" whilst taking in temporarily a cat named Lightning to catch Jerry, barely gave him a moment of sleep, and generally just verbally and physically abused him as part of her daily routine. Finally, he could not take it anymore and decided to let it all out, revealing the secret that he was tired of catching mice for a very long time.

"Bullcrap." Tom muttered under his breath. "I'm tired of conforming to the other cats. I'm not like one of them, is there is freaking problem with that? I just wanted to be friends with Jerry, and this damn lady is forcing me to chase the poor helpless fellow. I don't care if I don't get a god damn meal again, I've gotten enough crap for that. So what if I don't kill Jerry? It's not like the sky is gonna fall down or anything!"

After Jerry finished pigging out on the food, he was surprised to find Tom. He reacted quickly, then brought a box of pins to pour over Tom. As Jerry was about to pour a shower of pins on Tom, he stopped and stared at Tom, his hands cupping his face that was so red from crying. Jerry has seen Tom fake-cry a lot of times, but he hesitated.

"Maybe Tom is playing a trick on me." he thought, "He is pretending to cry to get attention so he can catch me."

Tom heard the clink-clank sound of pins and looked up to see Jerry. Jerry gasped and backed a little bit, but Tom only whispered,

"Go ahead, Jerry. Hurt me. I've done all I could. Kill me. I don't care what you do."

Jerry stared, surprised at this unusual request. He still thought that this was a trick, however he thought that it would not do much harm to pour a couple of the sharp pins on him.

Jerry poured down nine or ten pins, but stared in shock, since Tom barely reacted to the pain of the sharp tips of the falling pins. Jerry dropped more, and some more, and some more. Finally Jerry could not take it anymore and poured the whole lot on Tom. Jerry stared in surprise and confusion. Despite Tom looking as if he was a grey cat with tiny oozing red polka dots all over him, Tom did not seem to feel any pain. Jerry gaped. This definitely was not the Tom he was expecting. Jerry hesitated, but decided to go down the cupboard and talk to Tom.

After Jerry slid down, Tom picked Jerry up and fiercely brought him to his chest, embracing him thoroughly.

"Tom..." Jerry said, struggling breathe through Tom's tight grips, "Why have you changed so much? Aren't you going to chase or hurt me?"

"Oh no," Tom said, crying once again, "I could never do this again."

"But why?" Jerry asked, confused, "What were all those insane chases for anyway?"

"I was forced to. But I liked you. I loved you!"

"You say that you loved me, and you have tried to kill me many times you bastard. Like what the hell, you tied me up, tried to run over me, pricked me with a fork or a knife, tried to shoot me, and even tried to eat me! Are you out of your mind?!"

"That's exactly what I was trying to tell you about-"

"Uh-huh. And you think hugging me will make a difference?"

"It will. I was trying to tell you. I didn't want to be a mouse-catcher, but Mammy Two Shoes forced me to. She has forced me to do so all my life. I tried to be friends with you, and this was the secret I was hiding for a very long time. Whenever I tried in front of other people, Mammy would smack me, or the other cats would laugh at me."

Jerry stopped frowning and pulled a neutral face.

"I understand," Tom sighed, "I guess I don't deserve to be your friend. I probably deserve to go back to the hellhole I came from." Tom hid his face, and began crying once again, his formerly golden eyes now red and swollen as a raspberry.

Jerry hesitated, then embraced Tom on the leg. "No! Tom, I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you! I was just really confused, because when you first met me as a kitten you were really sweet to me but then afterwards you seemed so mean and then you've been acting strangely. I'm really really sorry!"

"That's ok." Tom smiled, wiping a tear from Jerry's eye. "Don't worry, Jerry. We can start all over again. Let's start a new beginning and forget those things in the past ever happened."

And they shook on it as they feasted on some chocolate cake, already more than enough to ease Tom's pain from hunger.


	3. Chapter 3

However Mammy Two Shoes was not finished. She could not understand why Tom was suddenly acting so strangely for the next couple of days. A cat and a mouse being friends? It was not possible. A cat just has to catch a mouse. That was the way it always was.

The next day, Mammy Two Shoes called the Butch the Mouse Exterminator for the second time to come and kill Jerry once and for all. Tom reacted in fear, cuddling Jerry, whilst Mammy turned to Tom and smirked.

"Don't worry, Tom," she told him with a fake smile, "we have a better cat to exterminate that pesky mouse instead of a worthless lazy one like you."

Tom glared, ready to pounce on her.

"You watch what you are doing." she warned him.

But Tom did not care. Instantly he jumped onto the lady, scratching and clawing her until she forced Tom off him, then slapped him in the face.

"That will teach you how to be a good cat for once! You know the drill, no more dinner today."

But Tom only gave a generous meow. He did not care what Mammy said, it was the same thing over and over, and it had been going on for about two years now.

However, as soon as Butch came, Mammy was all well dressed, makeup put on to conceal the scratches.

"I'm going out shopping. Tom, make sure Butch does a fine job. You watch him kill that rodent." she said as she walked out the door.

Whilst Butch was getting ready his extermination kit, Tom whistled for Jerry to come out. He placed Jerry in his palm and put a finger to his lips. Unfortunately, Butch turned just in time to watch Tom and Jerry sneaking up the stairs. In rage, he started shooting with a pistol in Tom's direction, trying to knock the mouse off Tom.

To trick Mammy Two Shoes and pretend her expectations were finally fulfilled for once, Tom put a lemon under the carpet in front of the front door, and squashed it.

The chase began. Butch chased Tom all around the house, in the living room to the kitchen, then the dining room, up the stairs, to the bedrooms, and finally to the attic, where Tom escaped through a window up to the roof.

"Hold on tight." Tom whispered to Jerry, as Butch chased him up the roof too. Tom leaned back against the chimney, then stopped.

"Where is that mouse?" Butch asked slyly.

Tom looked around, then behind his back he threw Jerry through the chimney. The fireplace was luckily free of logs so he did not have a burn or a scratch.

"I don't know," Tom lied. "It disappeared."

Jerry, now in the fireplace heard everything and imagined how his new friend would react to the threat. He rushed back up the stairs up to the roof. He decided to use this chance to sacrifice his life for Tom.

"STOP!" Jerry yelled, once he reached the roof. "Stop threatening Tom! I'm the one you want!"

"You're right." Butch grinned evilly. "There you are, little mouse." Butch prepared his pistol, looking as if he was about to play Russian roulette.

Jerry closed his eyes and placed the tip of the gun close to his chest, ready for his death. Tom gasped. Because of Mammy Two Shoes, he learned that cats had an appetite for mice, but he was not like any of them. He could not just let his new friend die. Butch touched the trigger.

"Thank you Tom..." Jerry whispered, preparing for his death.

But Tom just would not let any off this happen. Just before Butch was about to pull the trigger, Tom immediately pulled Jerry away from it and put the gun towards his chest.

"What are you doing?!" Butch yelled. "Get out of my way!"

"As you wish." Tom whispered, a tear streaming down his cheek, as he forced Butch's thumb on trigger, pushed it, and let the bullet go through his heart.

Tom slipped off the roof, and Jerry came tumbling after.

At this point, Butch was so confused that he let out his last breath, put in the last bullet, and brought the pistol to his head. Without hesitation, he shot himself in the head, and slipped off the roof too.

After Mammy returned home, she was at first delighted to find a lump in her carpet.

"That plan worked!" she said, grinning to herself, "I made the right decision."

Her hands were so full with shopping bags that she did not care to look under the carpet to see whether it really was a dead mouse or not. She was about to put down the shopping when she smell a foul stench. Something that nearly made her throw up. The doors were open, so she dropped the shopping and went out to follow the smell. She instantly tripped over the lump, which revealed the stinky lemon. Mammy grumbled under her breath, "I made the wong decision after all...cats ruined my life..."

However, fighting on she continued to follow the smell. She continued the path until she stared in horror at what she saw in her backyard, now covered with red-painted grass. She noticed two cats lying limp before her, Butch with a bullet wound in his head, and a puddle of crimson forming below him, and Tom with a bullet wound in his heart, the entire torso painted scarlet.

Mammy stared in despair, tears welling from her eyes. As much as she hated to admit it, she could not help but start to regret the abuse she did on Tom. Her mind was no longer on catching mice, but on Tom. The punishment must have been too extreme that he could not help but comtemplate suicide, she thought.

She was so confused that she began to pack her bags, leave the neighborhood and never more was heard of her since then. All that we know is that she went to a faraway suburb, but no one is sure where.

Jerry was finally living in peace and quiet. He continued to look at the two corpses one last time. For the first time, he could not help but start missing Tom a little bit. Tears welled up in his eyes as he breathed his last breath, walked up the stairs to the roof, and jumped off. After the task, he was done for once and ever. The two corpses were now three. Who knows, maybe they reunited back in heaven, or found fantasising feasts of their own to eat at last, after chaos around the house.


End file.
